FROM Monday July 20, Chad’s former
president, Hissène Habré, in power between 1982-1990, will be tried before
Senegal’s Extraordinary African Chambers (EACs) in the first case of
international justice on African soil.

The Chambers were established by
Senegal (where Habré has been living in exile ever since 1990), upon the
request of the African Union, to prosecute those accused of committing crimes
of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture in Chad under his
rule. A judicial cooperation agreement with Chad has enabled investigations to
be conducted on Chadian soil.
The Chamber judges are all African and the
majority of the trial funds also come from Africa. But what might this historic
case mean for Africa?

At a time when the International
Criminal Court’s exclusive focus on Africa is increasingly met with open
resistance (the refusal by the South Africa to arrest Sudanese
President Omar Al-Bashir is the most recent example to date) and accusations of
neo-colonialism from Africa, the AU’s determining support to the Chambers and
the prosecution of a former head of state can seem contradictory.

The answer partly lies in the fact
that Hissène Habré was ousted in 1990 and has long ceased to be a sitting head
of state – the controversial amendment to the Protocol on the Statute of the
African Court of Justice and Human Rights adopted last year by the Assembly of
the AU grants immunity to sitting and acting heads of state and senior
government officials.

The creation of the trial chambers
should no doubt also be read as the AU’s determination to prove Africa’s
willingness and capacity to conduct a fair trial that meets the standards
of international justice. In other words, this is a new “African solution to
African problems” coming from a continental organisation keen to mark Africa’s
independence.

Judicial experimentFor Senegal and Chad too, this is a
historical judicial experiment. Senegal has a long tradition of being an
African leader in progressive politics – it was the first state to ratify the
ICC’s Rome statute – and is evidently eager to prove its experience, capacities
and leadership in this regard. Senegalese President Macky Sall evidently saw in
the creation of the Chambers as a way of once more marking his differences with
his predecessor, Abdoulaye Wade, who had staunchly opposed the idea of Habré’s
prosecution.

Chad’s position has been
ambivalent, oscillating between outright cooperation and obvious hesitation,
most recently with regards to the broadcast of the trial on Chadian soil. While
President Idriss Déby is no doubt keen for his regime to appear in a favourable
light in this affair – especially given his own links with Habré’s rule – he
would also clearly have liked to control the process more, and the information
it will unveil.

Visitors view an exhibition depicting the years under which Chad was ruled by dictator Hissene Habre, on July 15, 2015 at the Douta Secke Cultural Center in Dakar (AFP Photo/Seyllou)

Beyond these state concerns, this
trial is also clearly a victory for civil society. The creation of the Chambers
cannot be read as anything else than the result of 15 years of lobbying by a
broad coalition of civil society actors comprising international, Chadian and
Senegalese non-governmental organisations.

These organisations have
relentlessly fought for Habré’s prosecution, using every means of communication
at their disposal to publicise the case and publish evidence, and exploring
every possible judicial option over the years (including Belgium’s universal
jurisdiction and a recourse to the International Court of Justice).

The concerned NGOs, but also many of their African counterparts, will probably have learnt
from this long experience and that these lessons will be applied again in the
future to exercise pressure on governments and inter-governmental organisations
in favour of human rights and justice.

Last but not least, this trial is
also a victory for the victims of Habré’s violent rule – and many other African
victims of authoritarian regimes. The length of time that has elapsed since the
events (25 years for the latest) means that, sadly, many key witnesses have
since died and will not be able to take part in the trial or follow it.

More visibleBut the long fight for justice in
an NGO-led campaign also means that some of these victims are now known to us
and have become much more visible than has ever been the case in similar
international trials. We thus know Souleymane Guengueng, who has written about
his experience of Habré’s jail in his autobiography, Prisonnier de Hissène Habré (L’Harmattan, 2012).

We know Clement
Abaifouta, head of the Chadian victims’ association, the Association des Victimes des Crimes du Régime de Hissein Habré, and
Rose Lokissim, who is the focus of a recent documentary by Spanish filmmaker
Isabel Coixet (Parler de Rose, 2014).

While one may have some misgivings
as to this individualised visibility of Habré’s victims, there is no doubt that
it has given a very human face to the affair and empowered other victims, in
Chad and elsewhere.

In many ways, the trial that is
about to start should thus be read as a very clear step by Africa, its states
and peoples, towards justice, human rights and memory. In spite of the long
struggle that brought it about, however, this is only just the beginning of the
affair.

Much is at stake for all actors
involved – the trial must be exemplary, both in the way justice is conducted
and in how it is brought and communicated to Chad’s population; the African
state community will have to respect and implement the judges’ decisions to the
letter; the victims and civil society organisations will need to maintain the
admirable consensus they have demonstrated so far and ensure that they represent
all victims’ voices throughout the trial and in their communication; and every
effort must be made for the trial to contribute to Chad’s political memory and
history.

For all of these tasks the actors
mentioned so far will depend very heavily on an essential actor: Africa’s
media. One can only hope that they – including this platform – follow the trial
closely and bring it to Africa’s peoples as much as they possibly can.

—Marie Gibert is Associate
Lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London.